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Showing posts from November, 2023

Blood and Guts: Christine Chubbuck, Death and The Voyeur

I gave you blood, blood, gallons of the stuff I gave you all that you can drink, and it has never been enough - blood (end credits) by my chemical romance In the middle of 1975, Christine Chubbuck, a Florida-based television news reporter, made history in being the first person to die by suicide on live TV.  As it's become a trend which has made a lot of people money, I've become vehemently anti-'true crime', the genre of podcast/docu-series/YouTube deep dive where the audience is invited to gawk at what is usually the most gruesome and grief-riddled time in people's lives. They often focus on murders and cults, topics that are both taboo and incredibly gendered. We have become more and more obsessed with women in pain and turmoil. Earlier this year, I watched  Christine  (2016) and  Kate Plays Christine  (2016) in succession after I realised they were both about Chubbuck. I don't mean to become fixated on troubled public figures and have become wary of my attac